View From The House - 6th April 2000

Reprinted From The Lichfield Mercury

The Budget was as we expected: the beginning of the general election campaign. We have seen money released mainly to the beleaguered NHS and rather less to education. I welcome any extra money particularly at a time when the British economy seems to be doing so well.

But why have we had to wait so long? Gordon Brown claims that he was mean in the first three years of the Labour Government because he was keeping to Conservative Party spending plans. But that just isn't true; it's just another Labour soundbite. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kenneth Clarke, made the true position very clear a few weeks ago. So, as a consequence, the health service has declined in our area and nationally as a whole.

Firstly, GP fundholding was abolished. This system gave money directly to GPs to spend on behalf of their patients as they thought fit. Local doctors, not health bureaucrats, could decide where patients should be treated - including the Victoria and Hammerwich Hospitals. The Government objected to this on the basis that this system introduced a "two tier health service". This is correct. Only half of all doctors nationally were GP fundholders and they were able to provide a better service than non-fundholders. The problem for the Lichfield constituency was that all our doctors were fundholders. We all enjoyed a better service as a consequence. So instead of making all the GPs in the UK fundholders, driving standards upwards, we now have a half way house which, frankly, is not as good. A good example of a Labour Government greying down. Why didn't the Chancellor use all the money he has available to provide fundholding to all doctors in Britain and move standards up for a change?

Secondly, Gordon Brown inherited a solid financial base. Instead of using the money, he hoarded it for 3 years. The consequence is that the South Staffordshire Health Authority will have to make some tough decisions regarding the future of local hospital services. At the time of writing, it would seem that the Hammerwich and Barton hospitals will close and that the maternity and dialysis units at the Victoria Hospital will close. It is even possible that the Victoria Hospital itself will close and the remaining services be moved to the St Michael's Hospital site.

I only hope that this cynical last minute injection of money into the NHS by Labour into the run-up to a General Election will be enough and in time to prevent this from happening. Already, analysts are saying that the money announced by the Chancellor is not as much as was stated and much of it is already committed to projects previously announced by the Government some months ago. So only a proportion is really "new money". (If the economy had been doing badly in the last 3 years, I could have understood the delay. But it hasn't).

The day after the Budget, I asked Tony Blair in Prime Minister's Question Time whether he would intervene to stop hospital closures in south Staffordshire. He didn't even say he would "look into the matter" - the standard reply. This was very disappointing indeed. People in Burntwood and Lichfield will now be holding their breath to see what is the outcome of future in-patient care in our area.